“Let’s polish (sic!) up, our English”
With this slogan starts our second day in Poland. First, we enjoy the ample and sumptuous breakfast buffet and prepare ourselves mentally for the next stage.
Actually quite pleasant taking a hotel room; you arrive, throw your gear off, shower extensively, have toilets and breakfast in top quality in view range and a comfortable bed to lie in.
We might get used to this way of traveling. But big disadvantage: The country and the people are thereby more at a distance, than at a campsite. To compensate this we use our walks in the evening hours to get a little more feeling for country and the people.
And, of course, not only to have motorcycle photos for those poor ones, left behind 😉
Perhaps also a small side comment on the used navigation equipment?
Each of us has a map and GPS in the tankbag as backup.
I navigate with the help of my smartphone and OSMand, which also knows gravel roads and footpaths and talks via Bluetooth also with me, but does not listen in between, thank God :blush:
This makes it easy to put together a more or less reliable route for the next day – even without a PC, and allows a flexible deviation from the route too.
Renate maintains the tradition of the roadbook and so we always sit together in the evening in order to write down the essential points, but we didn’t get close the next day often.
Sometimes temptations along the road, sudden inspirations, aberrations, or simply the desire for more, which lead us from the planned route. And sometimes these new tracks are the ones that give us the greatest surprises.
We also planned a buffer day in Riga. So, what can happen, nothing! What can we lose, nothing!
If this will be really so, stay tuned. 😉
Back to Today:
We paid our room yesterday, so it is easier to march directly to the motorbike in full motorcycle gear and stow away the pack bags without breaking into the first sweating at the front desk.
Still, sweating is the return journey to the A1, in the rush hour of Lodz. The need for Euro4 is more plausible after this experience, heck, I wonder whether Euro3 has already arrived in Lodz, at all? Having arrived safely on the A1, we continue “true North” towards Gdansk (Danzig) to leave the A1 a little bit upfront Torun.
From the distance we take a photo of the old town which is very nice and invites for a stop.
The GoPro mounted on the helmet provokes “en passant” photos. And this opportunity is used often.
What I do not know yet is, that these photos are very imprecise (I just call it so, and we are not talking of legions of dead mosquitoes on the lens … ..: – /) . In the course of the further journey I do reconsider this in my thoughts and a change to the smartphone Photo phalanx will more often occur.
Hey, 8 days ago the dataroaming borders in Europe have fallen, so why not keeping the guys home updated directly 😎
But we continue and follow the road to the hills north of Torun to turn later towards
Grudziad and follow the Weichsel towards the Baltic Sea.
We continue northwards over Sztum (where we lay low from the sun in the shadow of big trees, surrounding the miraculous lake) 
to escape a temporary construction site road close.
In Malbork (Marienburg) we stop again to overlook the enormous brick castle (largest of Europe) from the opposite river banks and to make a group photo with a “bow”.
We use the time to recapitulate the previous miles and talk about a deviation from the route plan.
https://youtu.be/RRuwzNo0w1o
Should we visit the Polish lagoon instead of Elblag? Krynica Morska and up to the end of the peninsula?
This idea finds broad agreement and so we 
continue northwards, to ride around the lagoon from the west and to steer towards the lagoon opposite to the stream of Polish guests.
The places all sound familiar and a later look in Wikipedia shows the why: The German past of the places had formed the names of towns and villages.
One of it: Sztutowo (Stuthof) a 
former concentration camp (hidden in the forest). A Muzeum, reminds of the crimes of the past. Panels along the street point towards the museum.
We ride along the road until it ends, almost touching the enclave of Kaliningrad, then we turn back.
Su would like to take the opportunity to spend the night here at the port, so we start our search for a suitable lodging. We had enough along the way, but will it be possible to get a free room in the main season?
The first hotel on the way back is Neptune, a huge hotel complex in the forest, we drive right in front and park directly in front of the front desk (I guess, this is why it is called so?). The lady at the desk did either have a bad day, or loathes motorcyclists in principle, because on the friendly question whether still rooms are available, comes a scarce “nie“, although Booking.com still shows vacant rooms. The answer in respect to the accommodation rates is answered with 2500Zlt per person. 😯
Lol, we rather sleep outdoor.
However, Booking.com is our friend and so, only 2km away, we find a nice Pension named Lotus, which offers us a cheap room for 3 persons. Not quite as spacious as the last room, but with balcony to ventilate the sweaty motorcycle gear and stow away the luggage. The day is young, we are showered, so we leave for an evening excursion to the port, to watch the ferries to Fromborka (Frauenburg) and the departure of a speedboat.
The breeze from the lake is cool and so we walk back to the beach promenade which is full of tourists.
Striking are the street vendors who braid colored strands in the hair of their customers.
An idea is born!
It starts to rain softly, so it is time to look for a restaurant.
Since we are at the sea, for us domestic Austrians of course only fish is a potential food and we obviously make a good choice, the fish is faultless (also the next day 😉 )
From our seats we see the busting activity on the Road. You easily can imagine sitting in Lignano, or Rimini.
As the rain pauses are getting shorter and the rain getting fierce, we return the shortest way home.
I sneak out again at dusk (23 o’clock!) to photograph the sun setting on the horizon over the Baltic Sea.
The silence, which radiates from the scenery is in stark contrast to the hectic bustle over the day,
I enjoy it and remain sitting there. But, the next rain shower drives me back to bed, too.
Weather: sunny and hot (27°), in the evening rain, short thunderstorm over the night
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